Level Up: Dying Light Review

Dying Light is horror, parkour, and zombie survival in one tight package. There are flesh-hungry zombies of various types infesting a junglegym of a city as you jump, leap, and climb from building to building, combating hordes of undead abominations in this quarantined wasteland. As night falls the horror grows, and the city descends into a pitch-black wasteland of scares and suspense.

For those less versed with zombie survival games, the objective is to survive the undead apocalypse. Depending on the stories progression, you may have to fight hordes of zombies or avoid all contact with the infected. The most common conclusion is to escape the outbreak…or become someone’s lunch if you’re a little less lucky.

Dying Light is about an outbreak of a zombie virus in a city called Harran, which seems to be somewhere in Europe. Your protagonist, Kyle Crane, has been sent to retrieve sensitive documents regarding the virus. Along the main story you see some good character development, and a realistic number of plans gone awry in a first-person view. Everything, even the cut scenes, are in an immersive and terrifying first person setting.

In the day you can run around and carry on as you please, provided you use a little common sense. However, when night falls, Dying Light changes from standard zombie survival into a true horror game, where your only hope for survival is evasion. As you grow stronger however, you can use brute force and fight the extra-powerful volatile zombies that stalk the night.

A lot of horror games are in first person, and can be quite gory. The scares come from a combo of suspenseful sounds, grotesque monsters, macabre scenes, and the very sudden appearance of the nightmares you are trying to avoid. In many horror games, your only hope is to escape, either by hiding or outrunning. This is where the parkour system becomes the handiest.

Parkour is fairly easy to use once you’ve gotten used to it. An experienced player can climb and jump from building to building with ease. This is a core concept of Dying Light, although sometimes at the expense of realism. For example, using a grappling hook has you going in a straight line Spiderman style, rather than a realistic swing. Also, you are exempt from fall damage if you land on a car, body of water, or pile of trash. (Editor’s Note-Connect-Bridgeport does not recommend jumping out of windows onto parked cars)

Just like any game, Dying Light has its fair share of glitches, the majority of which pop up in online play. Most of these glitches are unexploitable, and do little to hinder game play. For example, on one person’s screen a zombie might be “spazzing out” while on another’s person’s screen, the zombie will be moving normally. At the least, it’s good for a laugh with friends.

Speaking of friends, you can have four players in one game session, as well as one other that plays a special zombie, called a Night Hunter. Fast, agile, and with devastating attacks from above, the Night Hunter is a deadly force, despite its low health. You can choose whether or not to allow this fearsome creature. You also get a myriad of side missions with and without friends, all of which can be quite rewarding and will take up a lot of time if you do them all. Online in general is thankfully lag free with a decent connection.

All in all, I give Dying Light an 8 out of 10. Strong multiplayer, a variety of zombies, good climbing, solid scares, mostly benign glitches, and a strong story make it a treat. You can wander the apocalypse with your friends, and if you’re the type that enjoys horror and extreme zombie action, Dying Light is for you.